... probable that we are alive at the same time as, say,10 per cent of the human race. This is another way of saying thathumans will cease to exist long before they have any chance tospread across ... waves, earthquakes, tsunamis, andwildfires. Many urban centres in Europe, Africa, and Asia appear tohave collapsed almost simultaneously around 2350 bc, and recordsabound of flood, fire, quake, ... the planet, sending up a gigantic plume of gas and debris and blasting outwards a rapidlyexpanding shock wave. As fragment after fragment hammered intothe planet, spectacular images were gathered...